The apparent loss of Jerry Stone to the Lakewood High football program doesn’t mean the Lancers suddenly are no longer strong challengers for Moore League and CIF Southern Section Pac-5 championships this season.

But any perceived gap between Coach Thadd MacNeal’s team and each opponent it faces this season – starting on Sept. 4 at Crenshaw High to a possible spot in the Dec. 19 State Open Division title game – has narrowed considerably.

Remember, the Lancers lost to Poly, 20-10, in the Pac-5 semifinals, one of the nine games that Stone played for the team as a junior last season.

Anyone who watched Stone’s playoff rushing performances of 236 yards against Servite, 180 against Mission Viejo and 118, most of those in the first half, against Poly understand why he would have been on a very short list of the best running backs in Southern California.

That being said, the Lancers – led by USC-bound quarterbacks Jesse Scroggins and receivers the likes of Kevin Anderson (committed to Arizona State) and Dion Bailey (USC) – may still prove to have the best offense in the Pac-5, especially if junior Alley Long produces consistently as Stone’s likely replacement.

Other stuff

ESPN football analyst Lou Holtz predicted that Notre Dame will face Florida in the Bowl Championship Series title game in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 7.

That’s the same program that lost four of its final six games last season, including a 38-3 thumping courtesy the USC Trojans in the Coliseum, while finishing at 7-6 a year after going 3-9.

Let me guess: You’re not buying the Irish vs. the Gators in the final game forecast by Holtz?

Me neither.

Here’s an interesting little tidbit I just uncovered: Holtz used to be the head coach at Notre Dame!

Bob Ctvrtlik – a three-time U.S. Olympic volleyball player who led Pepperdine to the 1985 national title – is scheduled to be inducted into the Waves’ Athletic Hall of Fame during a function at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills on Oct. 25.

Ctvrtlik also played volleyball at Long Beach City College and Long Beach State before relocating to Malibu for his senior season.

He was also an all-Moore League selection in basketball and tennis at Moore League. There is little question that had he gone the basketball route, the 1981 Wilson High graduate would have been an exceptional college player.

Currently, Ctvrtlik is a vice president on the U.S. Olympic Committee and a member of the International Olympic Committee. SuperPrep Recruiting Magazine is a 54-page guide to the best high school football players, coast to coast, for the 2009 season.

It’s the first of a three-issue season of recruiting coverage provided by SuperPrep and its CEO Allen Wallace. If you’re intrigued, call 949-376-2900.

Maybe I haven’t looked hard enough, but I haven’t come across a story or column about the NCAA’s forcing the Memphis men’s basketball program to “vacate” its 38 victories and Final Four appearance in the 2007-08 season that mentions this tidbit:

Even if the Educational Testing Services had not invalidated the freshman eligibility-qualifying score guard Derrick Rose claimed to have posted – ultimately leaving the NCAA’s Committee on Infraction to make its ruling last week stripping the school of its 38 wins in ’07-08 – the Tigers would have had to vacate the vast majority of those victories and that NCAA runner-up spot to eventual champion Kansas.

That’s because the committee ruled that, since Rose’s older brother (Reggie) had been provided lodging (which he didn’t reimburse the school for) at a hotel the team stayed at on Dec. 14, 2007, Derrick Rose was an ineligible athlete the rest of the season.

The committee ruled that the elder Rose received charter air travel and hotel stays totaling more than $1,700 during the now-Chicago Bull’s only college season.

So, Rose could have landed a perfect SAT score and the Tigers would have still “vacated” all but the first seven victories because of the “extra benefits” provided his brother.

Harrison Barnes, a 6-foot-6 forward at Ames (Iowa) High who can stake claim to being the best prospect in the national class of 2010, has narrowed his list of possible college choices to Duke, (hometown) Iowa State, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and UCLA.

That being said, most who follow the recruiting scene will be startled if Barnes doesn’t spend what will almost certainly be his only college season (before heading to the 2011 NBA Draft) at Duke or Kansas.

Former Lakewood High and Long Beach City College hoopster-turned-comedian Victor Camper will host a “Laugh Out Loud” show Saturday at Khoury’s Restaurant (110 Marina Drive) with proceeds benefiting the LBCC men’s basketball program starting at 7 p.m.